1. Scientists Calmly Explain That Civilization Is at Stake if We Don’t Act Now
“The world has already warmed by about 1 degree C and without a global coordinated effort, the world will reach 1.5 degrees in as little as 12 years. ‘Several hundred million’ lives are at stake, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
2. To Protect the Environment, Buddhist Monks Are Ordaining Trees
To harm an ordained monk is a religious taboo and legal offense. An ordination extends this sacred status to the tree. Communities that ordain trees often patrol the forest, taking photos of illegal activity and reporting wrongdoers.
3. Politics As the New Religion for Progressive Democrats
“Religiously unaffiliated voters, who may or may not be associated with other civic institutions, seem most excited about supporting or donating to causes, going to rallies, and expressing opinions online, among other activities. Political engagement may be providing these Americans with a new form of identity. And in turn, they may be helping to solidify the new identity of the Democratic Party.”
4. Another Bro on the Bench
Ben Sasse’s speech on the Senate floor last week sought to rise above — or outright ignore — the debate around Brett Kavanaugh’s fitness to serve on the Supreme Court. But it also pleased moderate Christian pastors by pointing to the Fall and lack of shared sexual ethic for our country’s sexual assault and harassment epidemic instead of laying fault with white male supremacy.
5. Can We Afford Economic Justice in the United States?
Modern Monetary Theory turns conventional economic thinking on its head — and many argue provides a more just and moral way forward.
6. 1,000 Years of Labor
"In Europe, two traditions—the Greek and the Judeo-Christian, which eventually intermingled in the vast post-Roman world—gave shape to premodern ideas of work and defined the relationship between work and home and between labor and leisure. The Greek tradition, the product of a slave society, saw work as an unambiguous curse, fundamentally incompatible with freedom and citizenship—and therefore relegated to those considered outside the polis. The Judeo-Christian tradition upheld the possibility of redemption through labor, recasting idleness as sinful, not civic. The interplay between the two gave the West its ambiguous cultural inheritance on this question: a notion of work that could encompass both mass enslavement and the pathway to salvation; something absolutely alien to dignified and autonomous selfhood, yet also central to it. This inner tension has shaped the gradual separation of work from the worlds of home and leisure."
7. How 5 Catholic Nuns Are Propelling India’s #ChurchToo Movement
In Kerala, the Church holds immense power, both politically and economically. But these women are stepping up to challenge that.
8. The Hurricanes, and Climate-Change Questions, Keep Coming. Yes, They’re Linked
From The New York Times: “In the past four decades, global average sea levels have risen by about four inches. That may not seem like much, and in a 15-foot storm surge it may not add much to the destruction. ‘But we’re not talking about a few inches anymore by the end of the century … We’re talking about a foot or so. Then, it makes a difference.’”
9. The Islamophobia Industry: Evangelicals Cry Sexism While Supporting White Abusers
“It’s not American Muslims but white evangelicals who have overwhelmingly found a way to make sexual predatory behavior fit into their theological and moral scaffolding.”
10. What to Do If You Get Turned Away at the Polls
A handy step-by-step guide above. Learn more about voter protection at lawyersandcollars.org.
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